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Comment

"Excuse me, Chapter Master, I know this isn't exactly necessary to know to carry out our mission, but I can't help but wonder how these wretched things first came to be? As you've told us they spread by passing on their curse to others. If so, who was the first to be cursed?"

"Private Sullivan, is it? The answer is found in the transcribed visions of the great Prophet-General, blessed be her name. In the scriptures four such beings, progenitors if you'd like, are described. The first was the Hunter. With nothing but a stone knife he killed prey after prey, losing more and more of himself in the thrill of the kill. The Hunter's lust for blood became so extreme that the Lord himself cursed him and reduced him to a savage predator, more beast than man.
Some of our scholars believe the vision to be a metaphor for the first murder of another human being, which would make our Hunter the biblical Cain. Of course, that's only speculation and the scholars are far from reaching a consensus on the subject. Regardless, the Hunter is a good reminder that we are not to lose ourselves in our holy mission lest we devolve into their sorry state.

The second is the Outcast. He was a man who was exiled from his settlement for made up reasons just because the others didn't want him, but that does not excuse his actions. After each break of dawn he snuck into the village and into the huts of his former peers, assaulting them in their sleep and dragging their children into the night. The villagers put out guards, but the Outcast evaded them as they weren't there. For this the Outcast was cursed to haunt the earth, always shunned by humanity. I would not be surprised if the stolen children ended up as the vector of this curse, though horrible it might seem.
It only goes to show that we are not to turn our backs on each other, but neither does it mean we can relax. We can never know whether one of the Outcast's descendents will attempt to sneak past our watchful eyes. Remember that next time you have guard duty!

The third was the Depraved. She was wanton and gluttonous, carrying an endless desire for anything she didn't already own or hadn't already experienced. The trade routes allowed her to adorn herself with metals and precious stones from far away lands in a display of excess that not even our modern, materialistic world can't match. Of course, her decadence didn't stop there. With time her tastes and desires grew more and more debased and bizarre. I'll spare you the details, but she certainly lived up to the name she's now know as. Anyway, her final acts of depravity came when she willingly drank the blood of her fellow humans, and she was cursed to forever be bound and addicted to blood.
Some have drawn parallells between the Depraved and the whore of Babylon from Revelations, but that requires more squinting than seeing the Hunter as Caine. The whore of Babylon is generally believed to be a metaphor for something else, and even if that's not true, the scriptures heavily imply that the Depraved held a royal position. I mean, how else would she be able to afford her ever growing opulent appetites? But I digress. The lessen to take is the importance of moderation and discipline! We provide you with everything you need, from food to quarters to education, and any material things you receive from other sources would be excess and thus serve you better by funding our holy mission. Remember that the next time you get a chance to donate to the collection plate!

Where were we... Oh, yeah, the fourth and final progenitor. This one we don't know much of at all, to be honest. The scriptures, holy as they are, can be quite difficult to interpret even for the most learned of us. Unlike the others she's primarily described after she was cursed by our Lord, rather than before. In fact, we don't even know why she's cursed, only that she was imprisoned in a cage of fire and that she birthed, metaphorically speaking, a number of shadows that swept the lands, bringing chaos wherever they went.
Unfortunately this is where the scriptures end. It was the Lord's will to return the Prophet-General to His embrace in that very moment. Whatever else her holy visions might've revealed was simply not meant for us.

If you've been attentive during my lectures you should realise that these curses are shared by all of their descendents, but field research has shown that the targets classify themselves in similar categories, each embodying one aspect more than the others. It's not a perfect match with five so called clans, but neither do the cursed know of their own origins so misconceptions about their own forsaken nature is not surprising.
Any further questions, Private?"

Comment

"As I said, it's not a perfect match. The unaccounted for clan, Ventrue as they're known amongst their own cursed kind, is probably merely a variation of one of the other clans. Head Librarian Ryan proposed that the fifth clan was a European offshoot of the Babylonian devils due to the ease with which they both bend the minds of the Lord's children. They also seem to fulfil the same niche as leaders in their wretched societies. In the end the Council assigned both variations to the Serpent Class, which you should've been familiarised with during boot camp. And that's it for now. The mess should've opened by now so get out of here, Private."

Comment

"But Sir... the Serpents and the Lords have nothing in common? With all due respect Sir, but the comparison you drew between the Ventrue and Serpents is superficial and shoddy at best. The Lords claim direct dominion over the minds of animals and men alike, and are exceptionally resilient, while the Serpents tempt their human targets into sin and debauchery, but hold no claim over the animal kingdom, and they lack the resilience of the Lords, but make up for their lack of resilience with extraordinary strength and speed. How could these two vastly different clans possibly be related, Sir? Wouldn't it be more logical to assume the Lords are related to the Hunters, who also hold dominion over the animal kingdom and show exceptional resilience? Could it be that the Lords are the evolved form of the Hunters? Could the Hunters be devolved Lords who's Beasts have taken a stronger hold over their higher faculties?"

Comment

As for Daeva and Ventrue, I wouldn't expect a militarised and crazed cult of Hunters to have any insight into the details of Kindred society and metaphysics. Especially not since those two Clans are superficially similar in their trademark powers, and neither has a particularly obvious Clan Bane. Hell, many Ventrue doesn't even realise that they have a Clan Bane.
Edit: The more interesting thing would be the absence of a Mekhet progenitor as the Mother is quite clearly Strix (which even further cements that they don't know what they speak of as they don't even recognise Strix). Someone said earlier that they didn't see any connection between Strix and Mekhet, but there is an interesting fiction in their Clan book that suggests differently.